How Tyranny Maintains Power

Here’s a novel headline from the annals of tyranny. “Robert Mugabe Pledges to Step Down If He Loses Reelection in Zimbabwe.” Gosh, isn’t that the purpose of elections – to do the will of the people. If you lose – you leave office??? What a concept. But, of course, Mugabe has no intention of leaving office.

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According to reports, Zimbabweans are determined to remove the 89-year-old dictator who has single-handedly destroyed the economy of what was once the bread basket of Africa. And to maintain that strong hold on the nation he has stolen numerous previous elections. So wary citizens are turning out in high numbers, standing guard over ballot boxes and even bringing their own pens to polling places because of rumors that the ink in state-provided pens contained disappearing ink that would enable ballot manipulation. This is the exact situation I personally witnessed when I was an election observer in Panama in 1989. That year, the people were determined to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega. In the Panamanian election process, each candidate had their own ballot, Voters would select and gather the ballots they wanted for each candidate, put them in an envelope and put it in the ballot box. Noriega simply neglected to deliver the opposition ballots to the polling places. I witnessed thousand of people gathered at polling places, refusing to leave until the ballots were delivered. And I personally traveled with opposition candidates at they visited each polling place, pleading with people to stay put until the ballots could be delivered. I saw the people surge to these candidates, chanting and cheering, and staying put. In the end, as professional-election-observer Jimmy Carter was dutifully telling CNN that all was going well with the election, not a single ballot was ever counted. Yet, the next day, the state run newspaper announced that Noriega had won by 55%. When Mugabe announces yet another “victory” in the Zimbabwe election, remember, he is a liar and a thief.